A fatal vote? National study makes the case that cities with red-light camera systems save lives

National study makes the case that cities with red-light camera systems save lives.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE |
February 10, 2011

It comes way too late to influence the rejection of red-light cameras by Houstonians in a municipal referendum in 2010, but a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety makes a strong case that unplugging the devices will result in additional traffic fatalities here. It's an indication that Houston, bucking a national trend that has over 500 communities using the cameras, has made a costly mistake.

In 2009, 676 people died and 113,000 were injured in crashes at U.S. intersections attributed to red-light running. The victims in 64 percent of the cases were not the drivers running the light.

As IIHS President Adrian Lund notes, "Somehow, the people who get tickets because they have broken the law have been cast as the victims. We rarely hear about the real victims — the people who have been injured or killed by these lawbreakers."

According to the Arlington, Va., group's analysis of traffic-accident statistics, the cameras resulted in the saving of 159 lives from 2004 to 2008 in 14 large U.S. cities. It estimates that had the devices been deployed in all large American urban areas, the death toll from lighted intersection collisions would have been reduced by 815. Because Houston's system was not operational during the entire period covered by the study, no data from its program was included.

Foes of red-light cameras have insisted there is no compelling evidence that they reduce the number of serious accidents and have even argued they increase the number of rear-enders, when motorists brake sharply at monitored intersections. On the other hand, public safety specialists, police and hospital officials in Houston unsuccessfully tried to convince the electorate here that the cameras do cut down on potentially fatal high-speed broadside smash-ups.

To come up with its estimates, IIHS researchers compared fatalities from fatal red-light running in 14 selected cities above 200,000 residents. They sampled the time period of 1992-96, before the introduction of cameras, and 2004-08, when the systems were in place. Similar statistics were also compiled for 48 other similar-sized communities that had not installed cameras at all. The cities studied represent 10 percent of the U.S. population.

Crunching all those numbers, the study authors found that fatal crashes involving red-light running declined for both the cities using cameras and the ones that did not. However, average fatalities dropped 35 percent for those with the program, compared to 14 percent for those without. Taking into account population density and land area, the report found that the rate of fatal red-light-running crashes in cities with camera programs was 24 percent less than what would have been expected without cameras.

The study also found that all fatal crashes at intersections, not just those involving red-light running, were reduced 17 percent by the presence of cameras, indicating they have "a generalized effect on driver behavior at intersections that extends beyond running red lights."

IIHS president Lund says, "The cities that have the courage to use red-light cameras despite the political backlash are saving lives." In Houston, that may translate on our roadways as "no guts, more gory" in the coming years.